when it's at home
(Redirected from when she's at home)
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (AU) (file)
Adverb[edit]
when it's/he's/she's at home (not comparable)
- (idiomatic, British) (of a person) In reality; in fact; when it comes down to it.
- Who is Nelson Mandela when he's at home?
- (idiomatic, British) (of a topic) Plainly; in plain English; at its most basic level.
- Feng shui? What on earth is that when it's at home?
Usage notes[edit]
This phrase is an intensifier used to communicate the fact that one knows nothing about a particular person or subject, (Haemoglobin? What in blazes is that when it's at home?), effecting a self-conscious cutesy ignorance that sometimes also carries a humorous irony, depending on context. It often implies derision for the subject, or some erudite, esoteric, overly technical, or overly political word used in the company of the speaker.
Quotations[edit]
- 1852, Charles James Lever, The Daltons; or, Three roads in life. With illustr. by Phiz, page 101:
- And who is she, when she's at home?" said Dalton, half sulkily. "Lady Hester, of course, Papa.
- 1863, James Hedderwick, Hedderwick's miscellany of instructive and entertaining literature, page 166:
- And who's the Marquis of Pennywhistle when he's at home?' said the little man, evidently making the question for the purpose of preventing further words...
- 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- — Metempsychosis? — Yes. Who’s he when he’s at home? — Metempsychosis, he said, frowning. It’s Greek : from the Greek. That means the transmigration of souls.
- 1964, "A Hard Day's Night" (movie), The Beatles, dir. Richard Lester
- 'And who's Susan when she's at home?' - George
- 1966, Tom Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" (play and film)
- 'What's your name when you're at home?'
- 1970, Seán O'Faoláin, Stories of Sean O'Faolain, page 329:
- 'And what, pray, is wrong with Lourdes when it's at home?' 'Commercialized. I simply can't believe that this island was the most famous pilgrimage of the Middle Ages.'
- 1996, Sue Townsend, Adrian Mole: The Lost Years, page 71:
- I tried to explain to the poor woman, but she said 'What's a bleedin' ozone layer when it's at home?
- 1999, Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, page 58:
- 'I wouldn't suggest that GBS is not a great playwright, whatever that is when it's at home,' he wrote.
- 2000, John Le Carre, The Constant Gardener, page 163:
- "So what's the white plague then, when it's at home?" he demands, implying by his hectoring tone that Justin is personally responsible for its spread.
Other rare inflected forms:
- 1998, Robert Jordan, The Path of Daggers, page 533:
- “Who might you be when you're at home?” Rand said lazily. “Whoever you are, didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?”
- 1999, Gale Zoë Garnett, Visible Amazement, page 105:
- What, I wondered, was "a tongues meeting" when it was at home?
Translations[edit]
intensifying a question about something unfamiliar
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